An Investigation into the Effect of Smartphones Back Button Location on Users' Experience: A Case Study Comparing Apple iPhone and Android UI

The use of touchscreens as an input method on Smartphones has become the norm in the mobile phone industry. This has changed the way keys are traditionally arranged on Smartphones devices. One of these changes is on the location of “back button”. Few studies, However, have been conducted to investigate the effect of key locations on users performance and experience.

Aims: In this paper, we investigate the effect of back button location on users’ experience of using Smartphones. We made a comparison between Android Samsung Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5s.

Place and Duration of Study: Participants: Sokoto State University, Sokoto, Nigeria. between May 2017 and July 2017.

Methodology: A total of 40 participants all Students of Sokoto State University participated in the study. 26 were males and 14 females. 30 owned Android Smartphones while the remaining 10 owned Apple iPhone. We used observation to observe how users navigate through Facebook and Gmail app on both iPhone and Android while paying attention to their use of the back button, the time it takes to locate these buttons and first point of reference. A semi-structured interview was also conducted on users, requesting them to compare how the difference in the location of the back button on iPhone and Android has affected their experience of navigating through both Facebook and Gmail app.

Results: The study reveals that back button key location affects the user experience of using Smartphones, keys located at the bottom edges are easier to locate and those located at top edges are harder to locate and press.

Conclusion: Based on the results, the study concludes that designers of Smartphones user interfaces should strongly consider user preferences when deciding the location for back buttons and on Smartphones.